Five months until Berlin

To all you SLG'ers out there, it has almost been 4 months since I (or anybody else), put up a new posting but with the Berlin Marathon 2008 only 5 months away as of tomorrow, it is time to get the juices flowing and the inspiration going, not only for those of us who are signed up but also for those of us still sitting on the fence.
My running motivation this winter ebbed and flowed. For a few weeks after my mediocre performance in the NYC marathon, I was obsessed with running a spring marathon and getting back under 4 hours, but as the spring approached, it became obvious that without lack of serious training, a spring marathon would not bring solace. Instead I concentrated on partying.
As all of you know, I turned 50 on January 27th of this year. We had a great celebration the night before, which ended with egg on the windows courtesy of our neighbors and the police who came at 4 a.m. to ask to turn down the volume. In my opinion, a combination of police at 4 am and eggs spells out a succesfull party for a 50 year old.
It goes without saying that the highpoint of the evening was a performance of "The SLG Monty" by Erik, Gil, Mark, Mike and Stefan. Thank you guys!
Although Stefan, Gil and I had the grand idea of running the Manhattan half the a few hours later, to kick off the second half of my life and to celebrate the NYRRC 50th birthday as well (what a coincidence is that), after a conference call at 8 a.m. it was decided to skip this event and go back to bed.
During the next two months, the running shoes stayed in the closet most days, but when I did get out, I managed to run between 8 and 12 miles on several occasions.
Stefan and I ran a 15 k race on March 9th and finished together in a time of 9:02 min/mile. Not a stellar performance but at least we got a longish run in.
Then came April 6th, day of the More Marathon and More Half Marathon, and according to Stefan, the most important day in the SLG calendar. "The More Marathon and its half are to the SLG calendar what Easter means in the Christian calendar". After all, it was only 4 years ago that Mark and Stefan founded SLG to help me get back under four hours in the inaugural running of this event. So, he has a point.
So here I was, 8 am on April 6th, all by my lonesome at the start of the race. No fellow runners, no fans lining the street. I felt a bit melancholic. Had I come full circle and was I back to running by myself again? Having finished in 1:55:04 (8.47 min/miles) made the situation a bit easier to take.
More optimism about SLG and its future came back on April 19th, when we had the screening of the movie that Helena made at my birthday party of the guys stripping. We had almost as much fun this time around as at the original performance. It inspired me so much that I went out the next day and ran 8 miles. All of a sudden, I had this feeling that, although the winter was tough, there is a great season coming up and I am planning to kick ass. Don't tell me I didn't give you fair warning!!!
One tiny regret about the screening last Saturday that castmembers Gil and Erik couldn't attend and that I had forgotten there is more SLG movie material courtesy of Joe Bolanos (the block president) who had filmed the awards ceremony on Marathon Sunday, November 4th , 2007 with speaches by Clem, Gil and yours truly but in which all of us make an appearance. Joe had given me a copy of the DVD for my birthday, of which I had no memory until he asked me how I liked the film. Oh well, obviously a reason to have yet another party.

In the meantime, here is some news on some other SLG'ers :

Clem : even a super coach can have periods in which the training doesn't go so well. He did run in Barcelona in March and finished in a time of 3:47 with minimal training. He did postpone his 90th marathon (which he was planning on running in Antwerp on April 20th) because of inadequate training. Apparently, he is now planning on running his 90th on May 1st, International Labor Day.

Patrick : remember the SLG winner of the Chicago marathon 2006? He ran in Antwerp and finished in 3:16:42!

Grant: moved back to New York City. He and David will be bicoastal for a while. I love it. Not only do I get to see more of Grant, David is here for visits very regularly himself.

Stefan and Anne : more moves coming up, this time in the wrong direction. The Ewalds are leaving in June for 3 months to go try out life in Germany in the hope it will help them decide where to would like to end up living. In my book, that shouldn't even be a question....

Margarita : 5 months after running her first half marathon, she snagged a guaranteed entry for the New York marathon 2008 by having run 9 races in 2007! Congratulations!

Philippe : will take over as head of the Sara Lee marketing department for the North American region. I guess not running gives you more time to focus on your carreer. Let's not take that too far! Congratulations nonetheless.

Those are the news bits that come to my mind. If anybody has anything to add, I would love to hear about it.
In the meantime, I want to wish the SLG-ers who have signed up for the Berlin marathon a good training season, and obviously I would like to try and inspire some of you fence sitters to come and join in the fun. If you don't want to come and run the damned thing, you should consider coming and cheering for us. How about that?

Movie Review : "The SLG Monty"

Cast : Stefan Ewald, Erik Sevenants, Gil Perrone, Mike Smyth, Mark Hennenfent

Duration : 3 minutes, 47 seconds

Rating : PG-50

Fan Reviews : 0





On Saturday, April 19th, I had the privilige to attend a private screening of this short film by the up and coming cinematographer Helena Hungar.

The film is the story of 5 competive long distance runners, who want to break out of the monotony of logging hundreds of miles of training for yet another marathon by taking on an even bigger challenge for them, namely stripping at high end parties. What we witness here is their first public appearance at the 50th birthday party of their running coach, Lief Sannen.

The film has a very contemporary feel. The jumpy nature of the images betrays a purposely hand held camera and the photography being dark and gritty gives the whole movie the seedy atmosphere that is usually associated with strippers.

The acting is terrific. Although one might think that the cast's moves are unrehearsed and out of sync, after a couple of viewings it becomes clear that the choreography is purposely set up this way to put every member in the spot light.

A few things stand out about the five actors. Carefull evaluation of the performance show that Hennenfent is the silent yet forceful captain of the team, leading the performance forward without ever becoming overbearing.

Members in the audience were unanimous that, although Perrone definitely has the best body, Sevenants has the most talent to go far in this line of work. Interviews with people who have known Erik in a more personal way said they were not surprised by that statement.

Smyth needs some coaching with his footwork at crucial points in the routine.

And then there is Ewald's performance. Although he is obviously a very important part of the team, one almost has the impression he had a deal with Ms. Hungar to be left out of most frames! What does this handsome man have to be insecure about?

The one detraction in the production could be the soundtrack. The routine is set to Joe Cocker's version of Randy Newman's "You can leave your hat on", but is overshadowed most of the time by whooping from the audience, which is appropriate, but also by wild laughter from what seems to be the cinematographer. One can only assume that this was due to nerves and inexperience by this young yet extremely talented film maker.

No date for wide release of this production has been set, maybe the producers are delaying to get closer to the award season. Rumors has it that DVD's will be available in the next few weeks.
Rumor has it that there is more film material available about this group of runners/actors. Apparently a movie made on November 4th, 2007 at SLG headquarters shows club trophees being awarded. It gives validity to the statement that this fine group of people is truly multi talented. Hopefully we will have a chance to see this film as well.


Audience at the private screening,
Saturday, April 19th, 2008
Photo : Sannen